Follow-up care

Care does not end when the encounter is completed. A Clinical Coordinator can record a follow-up task for the patient and assign it to a person. The task text tells the assignee what needs doing; the due date tells the team when to check progress. Status distinguishes open work, work in progress, completed work, escalated work and cancelled work. Completion date records when the action finished.

A task references the patient rather than an encounter. That makes it suitable for a patient-level follow-up such as reviewing a result or checking a care instruction. The team should write enough context in the task text for the assigned person to act, while using the encounter and its signed documentation as the source of clinical context. Staff can use the open task list to see what remains outstanding across patients.

• Assignment. The coordinator records the patient, action, due date and assigned person.
• Progress. The Licensed Clinician updates an open task as work begins and records completion when the action is done.
• Exception. An escalated task stays visible for coordination when its original path cannot finish on time.

Agree which kinds of follow-up belong in tasks and what counts as a completed action. Set a practical rule for due dates and a daily review owner. Decide when an assignee should mark a task escalated and who will reassign or resolve it. Keep cancelled tasks distinct from completed ones, since a cancelled action did not deliver care. The status and completion date should tell the same story.

Consider a patient who needs a result reviewed after a visit. The coordinator assigns the task to a clinician with a due date. The clinician begins work and marks it in progress. If the needed evidence has not arrived, the task is escalated so the coordinator can track the delay. Once the clinical action is complete, the clinician records completion and its date. The patient record retains the sequence of follow-up work.

Create a task due this week and assign it to a real staff member. Check that the assignee can find it in the open list and that a coordinator can identify overdue work by its date. Move it into progress and then completion. Repeat with an escalated task to confirm it remains in the active review list. Finally, cancel a separate task and verify that it is not counted as completed work.

• Open care tasks — See open, in-progress and escalated work with assignee and due date.
• Active patient list — Confirm the task belongs to the intended patient and assigned clinician.

Follow the care task process after encounter review. Agree task ownership in implementation.